Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 1, 19 75
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity Two Behavior Factors in Elementary School Children 1,2 J a m e s B. Victor 3
State University of New York at Albany Charles F. Halverson, Jr.
Child Research Branch, NIMH The present paper reports on the development o f a modified problem checklist for use in normal samples o f elementary school children. The two factors, Hypersensitivity and Distractibility, replicated over male and female samples. Hypersensitivity showed a significant grade effect, with a decrease between the first and second grade for both boys and girls. In contrast, boys scored higher than girls on Distractibility and there were no grade differences. Convergent validity data from peer judgments, in-class activity level physical fitness measures, standardized achievement scores, and a comparison with another teacher judgment are presented. In addition, three Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967) dimensions, Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity, were developed and their relationships to the independent measures, as well as to the new dimensions, are presented. The pattern o f correlations o f Distractibility was quite similar for boys and girls, with both being rated as Mean-Noisy by their peers. The findings for Hypersensitivity were somewhat weaker. Distractibility and Conduct Problem scores reflected a similar pattern o f correlations with other variables; in a like manner, Hypersensitivity and Personality Problem scores reflected a similar pattern o f correlations with other variables. Distractibility was related to an increased activity level and Hypersensitivity was Manuscript received in final form April 10, 1975. 1Portions of this paper were presented at the American Educational Research Association Meeting, Chicago, April, 1974. 2The authors wish to thank Arthur Holmberg, Dr. Raymond Pressman, and the teachers of Hillside Elementary School, Niskayuna, New York, for providing valuable assistance in support of this study. This study was supported in part by the Research Foundation of New York, Grant Number 020-7315-A. 3 Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. James B. Victor, School of Education, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12222. 83 9 Plenum Publishing C o r p o r a t i o n , 2 2 7 West 1 7 t h Street, N e w Y o r k , N . Y . 10011. N o part o f this p u b l i c a t i o n may be r e p r o d u c e d , stored in a retrieval s y s t e m , or t r a n s m i t t e d , in a n y f o r m o r b y a n y means, e l e c t r o n i c , mechanical, p h o t o c o p y i n g , m i c r o f i l m i n g , recording, or o t h e r w i s e , w i t h o u t w r i t t e n permission o f t h e publisher.
84
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related to a decreased activity level in young boys. The total number o f behavior problems was related to a decrease in activity level for young girls. Older Distractible and Hypersensitive girls showed different patterns o f activity level. It is proposed that problem behavior is more complex for older children and that Distractibility may be less influenced by the usual socialization process o f school than is Hypersensitivity and may have some congenital antecedents.
In reviewing studies of behavior disorders in children, Anthony (1970) reports that most classification efforts have resulted in two major categories of problem behavior. The anxious, neurotic, inhibited behaviors are more likely to be characteristics of girls, while the acting-out, rebellious, aggressive behaviors are more often associated with boys. In a study of problem behavior of normal children, excessive shyness was found to occur more frequently in girls than in boys (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954). One widely used approach to analyzing problem behavior is the Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967). This scale is a factor analytically derived three-point rating scale for 55 relatively frequently occurring problem behavior traits in children and adolescents. The development of the scale has involved factor analytic studies of problem behavior in public school children (Peterson, 1961; Quay & Quay, 1965), institutionalized delinquents (Quay, 1964, 1966), students in public school classes for the emotionally disturbed (Quay, Morse, & Cutler, 1966), and children seen in a guidance clinic (Peterson, Becket, Shoemaker, Luria, & Hellmer, 1961). Four dimensions have been replicated with some regularity: Conduct Problem (Unsocialized Aggression, Psychopathy), Personality Problem (Neurotic-Disturbed), Inadequacy-Immaturity, and Socialized Delinquency. The last two have stemmed primarily from institutionalized children and adolescents. Our interest has been in developing behavioral measures that best describe problem behavior in samples of ostensibly normal children. Taking the research of Anthony and Macfarlane et al. as a starting point, we have focused on both anxious, inhibited behaviors and acting-out behaviors, particularly the restless, hyperactive syndrome of behaviors. While reliabilities for the Conduct Problem and Personality Problem dimensions of the Behavior Problem Checklist are generally quite adequate, there seem to be two difficulties in using the checklist'with normal samples: Low-frequency items may represent error in normal samples of children, and the Conduct Problem score may not represent restless, overactive behavior in young children very adequately. For example, in earlier research (Victor, Halverson, Inoff, & Buczkowski, 1973) we found the total checklist score related to both vigor of play and activity level of elementary-school-age boys in a free play situation. Also, the total score increased the variance accounted for by these behaviors over the Conduct Problem dimension alone.
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
85
The present paper extends earlier research on the Behavior Problem Checklist and reports on the development of a modified checklist for use in normal samples of elementary school children. Reliability data are presented, as well as convergent validity data from teacher rankings, peer judgments, in-class activity levels, physical fitness measures, and standardized achievement scores.
METHOD
Subjects The subjects were 100 elementary school children, grades 1 through 5, 50 males and 50 females, in a predominantly white, middle-class suburban school. All subjects were randomly selected from school rolls with the stipulation that they be within two months of the mean age for the grade.
Development of the Modified Problem Checklist The 55-item Behavior Problem Checklist was completed by each child's teacher. A procedure for selecting items that were used by teachers for at least 10% of each sex group yielded 33 male and 19 female items. Since we were interested in an instrument containing items that would be comparable for both males and females, only those items were retained that were used by teachers of at least 10% of the males and 10% of the females. This procedure yielded 16 items that were included in the factor analysis. In order to estimate the reliability of the obtained factor structures, the 16 items were factor-analyzed separately for the male and female groups. Two factors emerged for each sex sample (Hypersensitivity and Distractibility). A reliability estimate was determined by comparing the unrotated factors using the formula of Ryder (1967). The correlation coefficients between the male and female samples were .59 for Hypersensitivity and .58 for Distractibility. A final analysis for the checkfist was based on a factor analysis of combined sex samples (n = 100). The original factors on which the items loaded (Quay & Peterson, 1967), as well as the present significant loadings, are shown in Table I. The first factors, labeled Hypersensitivity, accounts for 28% of the total variance. The salient markers are Self-Consciousness, Feelings of Inferiority, and Hypersensitivity. The nine items loading at > .40 on this factor represent seven of the fourteen items previously reported as a factor labeled Personality Problem (Quay & Peterson, 1967). The second factor, labeled Distractibility, represents 21% of the total variance and loads at > .40 on seven items, with Short Attention Span, Restlessness, and Inattentiveness showing the highest loadings. This factor is somewhat
86
Victor and Halverson
Table I. Summary of Factor Analysis of Selected Items of the Behavior Problem Checklista Loading Item Self-consciousness Feelings of inferiority Hypersensitivity Shyness Lack of self-confidence Anxiety Easily flustered Passivity Fixed expression Short attention span Restlessness Inattentiveness Lazy Distractibility Disruptiveness Oddness, bizarre
Factor I Hypersensitive
Factor II Distractible
Quay-Peterson factor
.80 .77 .77 .73 .67 .66 .45
Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Inadequate -Immature None Inadequate-lmmature Conduct Problem None Inadequate-Immature None Conduct Problem None
.77 .76 .76 .70 .69 .65 .63 .60 .42
aOnly loadings of > .40 are shown for clarity. different from factors presented by Quay and Peterson (1967) based on the 55-item checklist. The present Distractible factor is made up of two Quay and Peterson Conduct Problem items, two Quay and Peterson Inadequate-Immature items, and four items for which they provide no factor loadings. Factor scores were formed for the total sample and these scores are used for sex, grade, and correlational analyses. Scores were also constructed for each child for the Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity dimensions according to the Quay and Peterson (1967) manual to determine the similarity to the newly formed dimensions and the importance of items deleted by the present procedure.
Other Data Sources Teacher Judgments: Rankings. Since our hypothesis was that problem behavior would be expressed differently for the sexes, with restless, overactive behavior for boys and inhibited behavior for girls, a different ranking was used for each sex group. Each grade-level team of three teachers independently ranked the 10 boys in that grade on a dimension defined by hyperactive, impulsive, and distractible behavior. The 10 girls were ranked on a dimension where the defining criteria were based on shy, timid, and withdrawn behavior. These rankings were possible since all three teachers had worked with each o f the chil-
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
87
dren during the year. A consensus ranking for each child was obtained after disagreements in ranking were discussed. While this method is not a teacher judgment independent of the Behavior Problem Checklist, it does provide procedures consistent with earlier studies. A subset of the independent rankings was analyzed for reliability and found to be acceptable (r = .68, p < .001). Peer Nominations. All children in the school (n = 315) selected two boys and two girls from a list of their homeroom classmates (approximately 25) in answer to eight questions: "Who are the two boys (girls)... (1) That you would like to sit by?, (2) That you would not like to sit by?, (3) Who are nice?, (4) Who are mean?, (5) Who are most quiet?, (6) Who are noisiest?, (7) Who are good at outdoor games?, and (8) Who are not good at outdoor games?" The children could choose the same person more than once. For the 100 subjects, each of the eight scores was the number of times the children were nominated divided by the number of children in their class. Interjudge reliabilities (Gordon, 1969) for the nominations were analyzed for each child and were generally acceptable (average r = .70). The results of a principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation for the eight peer nominations are shown in Table II. The first factor, accounting for 32% of the common variance, was labeled Mean-Noisy. This factor had significant loadings (> .45) on the peer nominations of Mean (.87), Noisy (.86), Not Sit By (.80), and Not Good at Outdoor Games (.50). The second factor was labeled Nice and accounted for 29% of the common variance, having significant loadings on Like to Sit By (.91), Nice (.89), and Good at Outdoor Games (.62). The third factor, accounting for 19% of the common variance, was labeled Quiet and had significant loadings on Quiet (.79) and Not Good at Outdoor Games (.65). Motor Performance Measure. Data were obtained using the Kraus-Weber Minimal Physical Fitness Test (Kraus & Hurschland, 1954), administered by the physical education specialist who did not know the purpose of the study. Table II. Summary of Factor Analysis of Peer Judgmentsa Loading Item Mean
Noisy Not sit by Not good at outdoor games Like sit by Nice Good at outdoor games Quiet
Factor I Mean-Noisy
Factor II Nice
.87 .86 .80 .50
aOnly loadings of > .45 are shown for clarity.
Factor III Quiet
.65 .91 .89 .62
-.57 .79
88
Victor and Halverson
Activity Level Each child wore an activity recorder designed to measure gross body activity during five days of classroom work time (approximately one hour every day). This activity recorder has been shown to be a reliable index of activity level and to be stable over time (see Bell, 1968, and Halverson & Waldrop, 1973, for details on recording activity level). School Achievement Data. Each child's current year's score on the Stanford Achievement Test was obtained from school records. A child's score was the mean of the subtest scores.
RESULTS
An analysis of variance (sex • grade) performed on the factors on the modified checklist indicated a significant grade difference for Hypersensitivity (F = 7.51; df = 4,90;p < .001), with a decrease between the first and second grade. There was also a significant sex difference for Distractibility (F = 8.87; df = 1,90; p < .005), with boys more Distractible. All other main effects and interaction effects were nonsignificant. A teacher effect on the level of scores seems unlikely since each of three teachers contributed an equal number of ratings for each grade. Figure 1 shows these findings in standard score form. To assess aspects of convergent validity, the two current factors (Distractibility and Hypersensitivity) and the three Quay and Peterson factors (Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity) were related to factor scores for the peer nomination factors, activity level, and physical fitness (Table Ill). The teacher rank, another method of behavior judgment by the same teachers, was added to the analysis. As ~can be seen in Table III, Distractibility for boys was significantly related to two peer factors, positively to Mean-Noisy and negatively to Quiet, and was significantly related positively to the teacher rank of hyperactivity. The correlations for the Conduct Problem score for boys were very similar to those for Distractibility. Distractibility in girls was significantly related to two peer factors, positively to Mean-Noisy and negatively to Nice, and was significantly related negatively to the teacher rank of shy-withdrawn behavior, physical fitness, and achievement scores. Again, the Conduct Problem correlations for girls were fairly similar, with the relationship to physical fitness of a higher magnitude and those to teacher rank and achievement not reaching statistical significance. Hypersensitivity for boys showed significant positive correlations with the peer factor Quiet and the teacher rank of hyperactivity and a negative correlation with physical fitness. The Personality Problem score related significantly only to teacher rank for boys. Both Personality Problem and Hypersensitivity yielded only one significant correlation (the peer factor Nice) for females. Activity level showed very low correlations for all the checklist factors, with only one, Inadequacy-Immaturity, reaching statistical significance for girls.
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
89
HYPERSENSITIVE BEHAVIOR @ +.75
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Distractibility and Hypersensitivity Two Behavior Factors in Elementary School Children 1,2 J a m e s B. Victor 3
State University of New York at Albany Charles F. Halverson, Jr.
Child Research Branch, NIMH The present paper reports on the development o f a modified problem checklist for use in normal samples o f elementary school children. The two factors, Hypersensitivity and Distractibility, replicated over male and female samples. Hypersensitivity showed a significant grade effect, with a decrease between the first and second grade for both boys and girls. In contrast, boys scored higher than girls on Distractibility and there were no grade differences. Convergent validity data from peer judgments, in-class activity level physical fitness measures, standardized achievement scores, and a comparison with another teacher judgment are presented. In addition, three Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967) dimensions, Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity, were developed and their relationships to the independent measures, as well as to the new dimensions, are presented. The pattern o f correlations o f Distractibility was quite similar for boys and girls, with both being rated as Mean-Noisy by their peers. The findings for Hypersensitivity were somewhat weaker. Distractibility and Conduct Problem scores reflected a similar pattern o f correlations with other variables; in a like manner, Hypersensitivity and Personality Problem scores reflected a similar pattern o f correlations with other variables. Distractibility was related to an increased activity level and Hypersensitivity was Manuscript received in final form April 10, 1975. 1Portions of this paper were presented at the American Educational Research Association Meeting, Chicago, April, 1974. 2The authors wish to thank Arthur Holmberg, Dr. Raymond Pressman, and the teachers of Hillside Elementary School, Niskayuna, New York, for providing valuable assistance in support of this study. This study was supported in part by the Research Foundation of New York, Grant Number 020-7315-A. 3 Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. James B. Victor, School of Education, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12222. 83 9 Plenum Publishing C o r p o r a t i o n , 2 2 7 West 1 7 t h Street, N e w Y o r k , N . Y . 10011. N o part o f this p u b l i c a t i o n may be r e p r o d u c e d , stored in a retrieval s y s t e m , or t r a n s m i t t e d , in a n y f o r m o r b y a n y means, e l e c t r o n i c , mechanical, p h o t o c o p y i n g , m i c r o f i l m i n g , recording, or o t h e r w i s e , w i t h o u t w r i t t e n permission o f t h e publisher.
84
Victor and Halverson
related to a decreased activity level in young boys. The total number o f behavior problems was related to a decrease in activity level for young girls. Older Distractible and Hypersensitive girls showed different patterns o f activity level. It is proposed that problem behavior is more complex for older children and that Distractibility may be less influenced by the usual socialization process o f school than is Hypersensitivity and may have some congenital antecedents.
In reviewing studies of behavior disorders in children, Anthony (1970) reports that most classification efforts have resulted in two major categories of problem behavior. The anxious, neurotic, inhibited behaviors are more likely to be characteristics of girls, while the acting-out, rebellious, aggressive behaviors are more often associated with boys. In a study of problem behavior of normal children, excessive shyness was found to occur more frequently in girls than in boys (Macfarlane, Allen, & Honzik, 1954). One widely used approach to analyzing problem behavior is the Behavior Problem Checklist (Quay & Peterson, 1967). This scale is a factor analytically derived three-point rating scale for 55 relatively frequently occurring problem behavior traits in children and adolescents. The development of the scale has involved factor analytic studies of problem behavior in public school children (Peterson, 1961; Quay & Quay, 1965), institutionalized delinquents (Quay, 1964, 1966), students in public school classes for the emotionally disturbed (Quay, Morse, & Cutler, 1966), and children seen in a guidance clinic (Peterson, Becket, Shoemaker, Luria, & Hellmer, 1961). Four dimensions have been replicated with some regularity: Conduct Problem (Unsocialized Aggression, Psychopathy), Personality Problem (Neurotic-Disturbed), Inadequacy-Immaturity, and Socialized Delinquency. The last two have stemmed primarily from institutionalized children and adolescents. Our interest has been in developing behavioral measures that best describe problem behavior in samples of ostensibly normal children. Taking the research of Anthony and Macfarlane et al. as a starting point, we have focused on both anxious, inhibited behaviors and acting-out behaviors, particularly the restless, hyperactive syndrome of behaviors. While reliabilities for the Conduct Problem and Personality Problem dimensions of the Behavior Problem Checklist are generally quite adequate, there seem to be two difficulties in using the checklist'with normal samples: Low-frequency items may represent error in normal samples of children, and the Conduct Problem score may not represent restless, overactive behavior in young children very adequately. For example, in earlier research (Victor, Halverson, Inoff, & Buczkowski, 1973) we found the total checklist score related to both vigor of play and activity level of elementary-school-age boys in a free play situation. Also, the total score increased the variance accounted for by these behaviors over the Conduct Problem dimension alone.
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
85
The present paper extends earlier research on the Behavior Problem Checklist and reports on the development of a modified checklist for use in normal samples of elementary school children. Reliability data are presented, as well as convergent validity data from teacher rankings, peer judgments, in-class activity levels, physical fitness measures, and standardized achievement scores.
METHOD
Subjects The subjects were 100 elementary school children, grades 1 through 5, 50 males and 50 females, in a predominantly white, middle-class suburban school. All subjects were randomly selected from school rolls with the stipulation that they be within two months of the mean age for the grade.
Development of the Modified Problem Checklist The 55-item Behavior Problem Checklist was completed by each child's teacher. A procedure for selecting items that were used by teachers for at least 10% of each sex group yielded 33 male and 19 female items. Since we were interested in an instrument containing items that would be comparable for both males and females, only those items were retained that were used by teachers of at least 10% of the males and 10% of the females. This procedure yielded 16 items that were included in the factor analysis. In order to estimate the reliability of the obtained factor structures, the 16 items were factor-analyzed separately for the male and female groups. Two factors emerged for each sex sample (Hypersensitivity and Distractibility). A reliability estimate was determined by comparing the unrotated factors using the formula of Ryder (1967). The correlation coefficients between the male and female samples were .59 for Hypersensitivity and .58 for Distractibility. A final analysis for the checkfist was based on a factor analysis of combined sex samples (n = 100). The original factors on which the items loaded (Quay & Peterson, 1967), as well as the present significant loadings, are shown in Table I. The first factors, labeled Hypersensitivity, accounts for 28% of the total variance. The salient markers are Self-Consciousness, Feelings of Inferiority, and Hypersensitivity. The nine items loading at > .40 on this factor represent seven of the fourteen items previously reported as a factor labeled Personality Problem (Quay & Peterson, 1967). The second factor, labeled Distractibility, represents 21% of the total variance and loads at > .40 on seven items, with Short Attention Span, Restlessness, and Inattentiveness showing the highest loadings. This factor is somewhat
86
Victor and Halverson
Table I. Summary of Factor Analysis of Selected Items of the Behavior Problem Checklista Loading Item Self-consciousness Feelings of inferiority Hypersensitivity Shyness Lack of self-confidence Anxiety Easily flustered Passivity Fixed expression Short attention span Restlessness Inattentiveness Lazy Distractibility Disruptiveness Oddness, bizarre
Factor I Hypersensitive
Factor II Distractible
Quay-Peterson factor
.80 .77 .77 .73 .67 .66 .45
Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Personality Problem Inadequate -Immature None Inadequate-lmmature Conduct Problem None Inadequate-Immature None Conduct Problem None
.77 .76 .76 .70 .69 .65 .63 .60 .42
aOnly loadings of > .40 are shown for clarity. different from factors presented by Quay and Peterson (1967) based on the 55-item checklist. The present Distractible factor is made up of two Quay and Peterson Conduct Problem items, two Quay and Peterson Inadequate-Immature items, and four items for which they provide no factor loadings. Factor scores were formed for the total sample and these scores are used for sex, grade, and correlational analyses. Scores were also constructed for each child for the Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity dimensions according to the Quay and Peterson (1967) manual to determine the similarity to the newly formed dimensions and the importance of items deleted by the present procedure.
Other Data Sources Teacher Judgments: Rankings. Since our hypothesis was that problem behavior would be expressed differently for the sexes, with restless, overactive behavior for boys and inhibited behavior for girls, a different ranking was used for each sex group. Each grade-level team of three teachers independently ranked the 10 boys in that grade on a dimension defined by hyperactive, impulsive, and distractible behavior. The 10 girls were ranked on a dimension where the defining criteria were based on shy, timid, and withdrawn behavior. These rankings were possible since all three teachers had worked with each o f the chil-
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
87
dren during the year. A consensus ranking for each child was obtained after disagreements in ranking were discussed. While this method is not a teacher judgment independent of the Behavior Problem Checklist, it does provide procedures consistent with earlier studies. A subset of the independent rankings was analyzed for reliability and found to be acceptable (r = .68, p < .001). Peer Nominations. All children in the school (n = 315) selected two boys and two girls from a list of their homeroom classmates (approximately 25) in answer to eight questions: "Who are the two boys (girls)... (1) That you would like to sit by?, (2) That you would not like to sit by?, (3) Who are nice?, (4) Who are mean?, (5) Who are most quiet?, (6) Who are noisiest?, (7) Who are good at outdoor games?, and (8) Who are not good at outdoor games?" The children could choose the same person more than once. For the 100 subjects, each of the eight scores was the number of times the children were nominated divided by the number of children in their class. Interjudge reliabilities (Gordon, 1969) for the nominations were analyzed for each child and were generally acceptable (average r = .70). The results of a principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation for the eight peer nominations are shown in Table II. The first factor, accounting for 32% of the common variance, was labeled Mean-Noisy. This factor had significant loadings (> .45) on the peer nominations of Mean (.87), Noisy (.86), Not Sit By (.80), and Not Good at Outdoor Games (.50). The second factor was labeled Nice and accounted for 29% of the common variance, having significant loadings on Like to Sit By (.91), Nice (.89), and Good at Outdoor Games (.62). The third factor, accounting for 19% of the common variance, was labeled Quiet and had significant loadings on Quiet (.79) and Not Good at Outdoor Games (.65). Motor Performance Measure. Data were obtained using the Kraus-Weber Minimal Physical Fitness Test (Kraus & Hurschland, 1954), administered by the physical education specialist who did not know the purpose of the study. Table II. Summary of Factor Analysis of Peer Judgmentsa Loading Item Mean
Noisy Not sit by Not good at outdoor games Like sit by Nice Good at outdoor games Quiet
Factor I Mean-Noisy
Factor II Nice
.87 .86 .80 .50
aOnly loadings of > .45 are shown for clarity.
Factor III Quiet
.65 .91 .89 .62
-.57 .79
88
Victor and Halverson
Activity Level Each child wore an activity recorder designed to measure gross body activity during five days of classroom work time (approximately one hour every day). This activity recorder has been shown to be a reliable index of activity level and to be stable over time (see Bell, 1968, and Halverson & Waldrop, 1973, for details on recording activity level). School Achievement Data. Each child's current year's score on the Stanford Achievement Test was obtained from school records. A child's score was the mean of the subtest scores.
RESULTS
An analysis of variance (sex • grade) performed on the factors on the modified checklist indicated a significant grade difference for Hypersensitivity (F = 7.51; df = 4,90;p < .001), with a decrease between the first and second grade. There was also a significant sex difference for Distractibility (F = 8.87; df = 1,90; p < .005), with boys more Distractible. All other main effects and interaction effects were nonsignificant. A teacher effect on the level of scores seems unlikely since each of three teachers contributed an equal number of ratings for each grade. Figure 1 shows these findings in standard score form. To assess aspects of convergent validity, the two current factors (Distractibility and Hypersensitivity) and the three Quay and Peterson factors (Conduct Problem, Personality Problem, and Inadequacy-Immaturity) were related to factor scores for the peer nomination factors, activity level, and physical fitness (Table Ill). The teacher rank, another method of behavior judgment by the same teachers, was added to the analysis. As ~can be seen in Table III, Distractibility for boys was significantly related to two peer factors, positively to Mean-Noisy and negatively to Quiet, and was significantly related positively to the teacher rank of hyperactivity. The correlations for the Conduct Problem score for boys were very similar to those for Distractibility. Distractibility in girls was significantly related to two peer factors, positively to Mean-Noisy and negatively to Nice, and was significantly related negatively to the teacher rank of shy-withdrawn behavior, physical fitness, and achievement scores. Again, the Conduct Problem correlations for girls were fairly similar, with the relationship to physical fitness of a higher magnitude and those to teacher rank and achievement not reaching statistical significance. Hypersensitivity for boys showed significant positive correlations with the peer factor Quiet and the teacher rank of hyperactivity and a negative correlation with physical fitness. The Personality Problem score related significantly only to teacher rank for boys. Both Personality Problem and Hypersensitivity yielded only one significant correlation (the peer factor Nice) for females. Activity level showed very low correlations for all the checklist factors, with only one, Inadequacy-Immaturity, reaching statistical significance for girls.
Distractibility and Hypersensitivity
89
HYPERSENSITIVE BEHAVIOR @ +.75
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